Blackburn: New bike luggage, new pumps, new Rangers

Blackburn has completely revamped its line over the last few years and really taken the whole bikepacking thing and run (off) with it. It now offers a range of framebags, bar bags, seat packs and panniers for the most rufty-tufty among us. In order to promote this fact and to spread the word of bike touring (on and off road) it has been sponsoring a team of ‘Blackburn Rangers’ (no football connection involved) who are tasked with doing epic journeys and writing about them. The new Rangers every year are given their bikes and instructions at the Blackburn Ranger Camp, up in the woods by Blackburn’s Northern California home.

This year’s trip involved riding from San Jose Airport right up into the mountains above the Pacific, camping out, throwing axes and riding bikes on and off road. While up in the woods, Blackburn also introduced some new products for 2016.

Blackburn Chamber HV

The Chamber HV as you’d expect is a high-volume pump for mountain biking. It’ll do 0-50psi on its huge dial gauge, had a bleed valve for the hose, there’s a built-in bottle opener and the grip is a standard 31.8mm in case you wanted to fit some riser bars…

Other pumps in this range will get the new huge gauge too.

Blackburn Switch Tool

There’s a new tool that wraps up in its own pouch and features four, double sided bits and a socket. There’s room for a credit card/ID in the pouch and it’ll be around £20 or so

Blackburn Outpost Bags

Blackburn’s Outpost bikepacking range has been refined over the last couple of years and now features a seat pack, bar bag, expandable seat pack and top tube bag. For 2016 there’ll be a limited edition camo version of the range, or you can get the regular black bags from importers Zyro now.

The Ranger Camp wouldn’t have been complete without campfires, axe-throwing competitions, card magic and great riding. See Singletrack in an issue or two for more of those shenanigans.